This study explores the relationship between electoral system design and local councillors’ sense of representation across the surveyed countries with regard to representation of women and ethnic minorities. While overall electoral rules, including gender quotas and minority protections were imposed to enhance descriptive representation of group members, their impact on substantive representation is more nuanced. Although one might expect candidate-centred systems that promote personal vote cultivation to drive representation, the findings suggest otherwise. Individual-level factors, such as prior activism, ideological orientation, and identity, are more decisive in shaping substantive representation of the two analysed categories than the electoral system itself. Furthermore, councillors elected through local electoral lists demonstrate a stronger commitment to minority representation than those from national party lists. By contrasting electoral rules and considering demographic, contextual, and political variations, this study underscores the limited role of institutional design in fostering substantive representation and highlights the critical role of political agency.